Bush found he fit with A&M's traditions, emphasis on public service

Ralph K.M. Haurwitz @ralphhaurwitz

Wednesday

Dec 5, 2018 at 4:21 PMDec 7, 2018 at 10:13 AM

COLLEGE STATION — Anyone who has spent time on the sprawling Texas A&M University campus knows that if you get lost and look perplexed, a student might well stop and offer to point you in the right direction.

"That doesn't happen in too many places," said John Sharp, chancellor of the A&M System.

That sort of politeness is just one aspect of Aggie culture that resonated with former President George H.W. Bush. Others include the long-standing tradition of military service and a more conservative strain of political sensibilities than found at, say, Yale University, where Bush earned his bachelor's degree in economics and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

During the 1997 dedication of his presidential library and museum on the College Station campus, Bush jokingly recalled how he told the president of Yale why he chose A&M as the site for those institutions along with a school of government and public service: "Hell, I don't want to be hung in effigy any more." That was a reference to protests on the New Haven, Conn., campus during his presidency.

He also passed on overtures from Rice University and the University of Houston when he settled on A&M in 1991. Years later, he put it this way: "I felt very comfortable on the A&M campus. In fact, we're going to be buried there, right across from the pond."

The 41st president, who liked to fish in that pond behind his library, will arrive at A&M by train Thursday, his casket borne by Locomotive 4141. He will be buried on the library grounds next to his wife, Barbara, who died in April, and their daughter Robin, who died of leukemia in 1953 at the age of 3.

On Wednesday afternoon, in what officials described as a tribute flight in honor of Bush, a Boeing 747 with his casket and family members aboard flew low over the interment site en route from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to Houston. The aircraft, one of two assigned to the president and dubbed Air Force One whenever the nation’s chief executive is aboard, had the call sign “Special Airlift Mission 41” for Wednesday’s flight.

Bush's affection for A&M only appeared to grow after his four years in the White House. His relaxed grace and down-to-earth approach endeared him to students, faculty members and administrators.

"He went to football games, basketball games. He'd show up at the rec sports center to work out," said Ray M. Bowen, a former president of the university. "He wasn't a lecture kind of guy; he'd meet with a group of 15 or 20 students and talk about an issue, as friends would talk. He was good friends with R.C. Slocum, the football coach. He would sit in the coach's box, comment on the play that was called. He'd engage in everything about the university."

Bush sky-dived three times onto the campus, the last time at the age of 83 to celebrate the reopening of his library after major remodeling. He and his wife stayed from time to time at their apartment in the library.

"He loved the traditions of Texas A&M," said Jim McGrath, Bush's longtime spokesman. "He loved the prevailing sense of spirit perhaps best embodied in the Corps of Cadets and the students' yearly volunteer events."

After Hurricane Harvey swamped Texas last year, Bush called a halt to a black-tie dinner planned for the Bush school's 20th anniversary. "He said, 'We're not going to have a sit-down dinner when people are hurting. We're going to help,’” recalled A&M President Michael K. Young, who, as a Bush appointee at the State Department, had come to appreciate his compassion, civility and patience. Bush persuaded the four other living presidents to join him at A&M for a charity concert benefiting hurricane victims.

In 1999, after a giant stack of wood for an unlit Aggie bonfire collapsed, killing 11 students and one former student and injuring 27 other people, Bush traveled from Houston to visit the site of the collapse and attended a memorial service. "He simply attended," Bowen said. "He did not want to speak."

Bush conducted his political campaigns with sharp elbows, but he was otherwise kind, and his dealings at A&M were no exception. "I never heard him express a negative about anybody or display any anger or frustration," Bowen said.

Putting A&M on the world stage

The former president's presence at A&M elevated the reputation of both the Bush School of Government and Public Service and the university as a whole, said Mark A. Welsh III, dean of the school and a retired Air Force general.

"Because President Bush was actively involved and inviting (former U.S. Secretary of State) Madeleine Albright and (former British Prime Minister) Margaret Thatcher and (former Soviet leader) Mikhail Gorbachev to come visit, the school built a reputation much more quickly than it would have otherwise," Welsh said. "That visibility helped not just the Bush school, but it helped Texas A&M." About 70 percent of Bush school graduates enter government or nonprofit service, he said.

Lane Stephenson, who was a spokesman for the university for 50 years and is now working on a book about A&M's history, said Bush's library, school and presence put A&M on the world stage.

"I think that his association with Texas A&M has had the most positive impact on the university since the decisions to allow women to enroll in 1963 and to make participation in the Corps of Cadets optional in 1965," Stephenson said.

Yale, as it turns, apparently doesn't have any hard feelings. In 2016, when its baseball team competed against A&M in College Station, the Yale players donned the type of uniform Bush wore when he was on the team. The former president, wearing an A&M cap and a Yale baseball shirt, threw out the first pitch. The Aggies won 10-2.

A&M announced Wednesday that its football players will wear decals bearing the number 41 on their helmets for their bowl game Dec. 31 against North Carolina State University. Other A&M athletic teams will have patches with that number on their uniforms for the rest of the 2018-19 seasons.

When Bush's casket is driven to the library from the train, members of the Corps of Cadets will line the roadway. Bush, who was a World War II naval aviator, had great respect for Corps members, roughly 40 percent of whom pursue a military commission.

"We're so honored to have him identified with the university," Young said. "We hope by identifying him with this school we will have students who will become that kind of leader."

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